How do YOU control your character?

[MoonSheep]

i like to have someone set the controls without me looking then join a posi 1 with @Snarky to figure it all out

[TheZag]

I use mostly the default layout.  W A S D for movement and Q E for rotation.  I can reach 1 2 3 4 5 for the first 5 powers in tray 1 without lifting my left hand.  My mouse has a few extra buttons that i sometimes use for powers in tray 3 but most of the stuff in tray 2 and 3 arent used often or are toggles so i tend to click them as needed.  I put the prestige teleport stuff in tray 4 and click over to it from tray 3 when needed since those have long cooldowns and are not used often.  On characters that need more than 3 visible trays,  i make 1 more bar and have it near the bottom center of the screen.  It usually ends up as mastermind pet powers and other summon abilities.

 

 

[nihilii]

17 hours ago, Akisan said:

Maybe... 

 

I don't suppose, by chance, you also split your powers into those trays by:

Attacks vs. controls (blasters/doms [or ranged vs. melee]), support vs. attacks (def/corr), and ST vs. AOE (melee ATs)?

 

(And yeah, it's interesting to see someone else using the exact same binds - did you also set the F keys to alt_tray so they keep working when tray swapping?)

To an extent, I do these splits! My preferred way is generally: first bar gets ST then AoE (this generally fills 1 to 6). Controls/supports go in the function trays.

I don't trayswap much so I haven't set up the F keys to alt_tray.

[TheOtherTed]

On 8/5/2023 at 12:33 PM, Mir2 said:

How do most other people control their toons?

 

 

Edited August 9, 2023 by TheOtherTed
Why, yes, it did take me three days to come up with that one.

[Mir2]

I don’t even have to click the video. I can already hear the song. 

[Sykar]

I will never understand how people can stand turning via keyboard instead of the mouse. It is so slow and sluggish by comparison. The only reason I would do so is if I play with one hand only Al Bundy style. 😁

[Frostbiter]

 

[cranebump]

I use a trail of Reese's Pieces.

[TheOtherTed]

Ooh, piece of candy!

[Mir2]

13 hours ago, Sykar said:

I will never understand how people can stand turning via keyboard instead of the mouse. It is so slow and sluggish by comparison. The only reason I would do so is if I play with one hand only Al Bundy style. 😁

You can change the turn rate in Options.   
 

I move by keypad because I have historically used my right hand to activate powers.  Too hard to keep switching between mouse and numpad with my right hand. 
 

I use mouse to turn when traveling, but keys when in combat. 

[MyriVerse]

asdw and arrow keys

[Sykar]

9 hours ago, Frostbiter said:

 

[Major_Decoy]

The default font for the forum is not kind to the word click.

[Ironblade]

13 hours ago, Major_Decoy said:

The default font for the forum is not kind to the word click.

Yes, it's all about the kerning.

[Major_Decoy]

Hawkeye has that same problem, but Marvel has learned to be careful with all cap kerning of his name.

 

[Mjolnerd]

Left hand WASD for movement + QE for turning, not sure why but it's ingrained in me to the point that I have to remap other games that do the standard "E = interact" thing (which is most of them).

Attacks or other commonly-used powers go in the main tray, 1-5 or so depending on the character.

Less-common but still frequently-used powers like Assassin's Strike, Taunt, combo finishers for StJ, etc go to tray 2 so I can Alt+number them.

Even-less-common things that I still want to have handy like location AOEs or "panic buttons" like armor set T9s are on tray 3 so I can Ctrl+number them (that's slightly harder and slower for me than Alt since I can't use my thumb for it).

 

Right hand floats between my mouse and the 7-0 side of the keyboard; that's where things like Build Up, Hybrid powers, self-heals and the like end up, again making heavy use of the Alt key to shift up to tray 2 for a lot of it.

 

Toggles and anything on auto (Hasten) go in a separate tray next to my main ones so I can see what's going on with them, but I'll click them manually so I don't need them taking up space in my main trays. Same with long range teleports, utility powers like Reveal, or pet summons.

 

I can, if I really want to (and I'm not chatting or doing anything too involved like an iTrial or something), play the game at about 90% "efficiency" using only my left hand. Don't give me that look, I know what I said.

 

I'm playing on a docked Steam Deck these days and I've thought about experimenting with a controller-style layout to see if I can come up with something workable so I can play when I'm not at home, but I haven't put too much effort into that yet.

[TheMoneyMaker]

Basic laptop with wireless mouse, all default keyboard settings, no binds,

[honoroit]

 

if youve not seen elsewhere, in my amazing forum posts:

 

these two are essential (to me) for AT where theres a mix of pbaoe and ranged. 

 

the third is useful as a ghetto travel power.

 

1/ combat to to target:

/bind ` powexec_location target combat teleport

 

2/ teleport backwards 50 feet:

/bind shift+` powexec_location 180:50 combat teleport

 

it lets you hop in and away very quickly.  2/ is smart enough to hop you up onto a ledge, or clip tge distance if you cant get a full 50 feet.  i use 50 because center if mob to near circumferance of cone with some extra for the back of mobs on a 60-80ft cone.  adjust to your needs.

 

3/ ghetto travel power:

/bind alt+` powexec_location 0:100 combat teleport

^ hop forward 100ft.  results in very rapid movement, for 3 hops at least.

Edited August 15, 2023 by honoroit

[Jimpy2]

Right hand arrow keys, number pad, and mouse, left hand gaming keypad 

[Endal]

Movement: ESDF

Primary Attacks: WRAT

Secondary Attacks: GYHB

AoE Attacks: ZV

Activate Travel Power: Q

EVEN MORE!: 1-0

OMG.. WTF: Alt + 1-0

 

I can control every action my character can do with my left hand VERY easily and the best part is that I have the standard QWERTY home key position the entire time I play.

[RikOz]

For movement, instead of W-A-S-D, I use Q-W-E-S. W=forward, S=back, as usual, but Q & E for turn left/right. So then A&D become strafe left/right. I swear this was the default arrangement for CoH on live, and I ended up liking it so much that, after the shutdown, I adopted it in WoW when I went back to that game.

 

I rarely use the keyboard for turn left/right, though, since I do most of that with the mouse.

 

Top number row, 1-0, for most common attacks that are part of my normal attack chain. Exception being my blaster snipes. Perhaps it's an odd power tray arrangement, but all of my characters' trays are set up following the same rules:

 

Tray #1: Attack powers.

For melee characters, these are typically arranged in the order I train them, with a couple exceptions for certain specific PS's. Usually the same thing for my sentinels.

 

For my blasters, my most-frequently-used primary PS ranged attacks are on 2-5. Basic melee attacks from the secondary PS are placed on 1 & 6. 7 is always a ranged AoE, like Rain of Fire or Ice Storm. 8 gets a lesser-used ranged attack, or possibly a secondary PS melee attack if I find it useful. 9 gets my T9 nuke. 0 is my main travel power

 

Tray #2: Toggles & Utility

Pretty self-explanatory. All of my toggles go here. If there is room left, I'll stick things like Hold and Immobilizes in there, to the right of my toggles. Rest power goes in slot 0.

 

Tray #3: Utility+

Slot 1 is always Aim/Build-up. If a blaster, 1=Aim, 2=Buildup, 3=Snipe. 4=Self-heal if character has one. 5=Taunt if character has one, or Placate if a stalker. 6-9 hold whatever I feel like. 0=Secondary travel power, if I have one.

 

While my travel powers are assigned to slots, I don't actual use a keypress or click for them. Instead, I use mouse buttons 4&5 (side thumb buttons on my mouse) mouse4=primary travel, mouse5=secondary travel. They still get power tray slots because I haven't figured out yet how to bind a power to a keystroke/mouse button without having it on a tray somewhere.

 

Hover, as a secondary power, is reserved for my ranged characters. I never use it on melee toons, simply because I think hovering melee attacks look ridiculous. And for ranged toons, I eschew Hover for Assault Rifle, Dual Pistols, and Beam Rifle. Just because I feel like the feet should be planted properly when firing weapons like that.

Edited August 21, 2023 by RikOz

[Cybersbe]

I’m still a noob, so instead of using macros and such, I mostly just use my left hand for moving around with the keyboard, and manually clicking on tray powers with the mouse.

[Agent X-49]

I've used a Steam Controller in the past, but I'm playing around with a DS5 configuration currently. I enjoy playing Tri-form builds almost exclusively, so I use the button pad for firing off macro-d powers and form-shifts. Left trigger shifts between power tray 1-4, 5-8. Left stick is Forward/Backward/Left/Right. Right stick is right-mouse. Touchpad is used occasionally for mouse movement/click, but I really don't like the touchpad. Steam controller is superior for controlling the mouse.

 

Edit: Oh, and I use left-bumper: single tap for previous enemy, double tap for closest enemy. Right-bumper: single tap for next enemy, double tap for farthest enemy.

Edited August 22, 2023 by Agent X-49

[Starhammer]

I use an XBOX 360 controller. I have extensive, dynamic keybinds that cycle attacks and auto attacks, sometimes buffs & heals through the AXBY buttons on the controller. Left stick is movement, left trigger is jump/up, and also toggles on all toggles. D-Pad is mostly targeting. Right stick is cursor control, and left trigger is right mouse button.

It's a bit of setup work, and then some more for each character once they have enough powers they should be customized, but it means I don't have to reach for the keyboard at all during combat, except to chat. I type 2 ways, slow & bad, so this is of course preferable.